


Passing the Bug

by emetoandotherthings



Category: Original Work
Genre: Emetophilia, Emetophobic character, F/M, Panic, Panic Attacks, Sick Character, Sickfic, Stomach Ache, Virus, emeto, stomach bug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-06-16
Updated: 2019-06-16
Packaged: 2020-05-13 05:14:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,684
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19244560
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/emetoandotherthings/pseuds/emetoandotherthings
Summary: Prompt:  There's a bug going round school, and Alba is used to kid's germs so she doesn't get sick, but she gives it to Leyton and then feels super guiltyWarning: Includes vomiting





	Passing the Bug

There are certain things that every student teacher dreads happening while they are in charge of a class. There was obvious things like the classroom getting set on fire, or a child getting badly injured, but the likelihood of these things occurring were small. Alba wasn’t fazed by much, she was pretty resilient about most things, but she hadn’t expected one of the kids in her class to puke so spectacularly when she’d arrived at school that morning. 

She’d noticed Paul was a bit pale as she took the register, and that he wasn’t as talkative and bouncy as he usually was when she set them their first task of the morning, but there were a thousand possible reasons for this. She’d sat at her desk and sorted through her resources for the maths lesson she would do after their morning tasks were completed. Then she was startled by a gasping shriek, the scraping of chair legs against the floor, and she looked up to witness Paul projectile vomiting all over the desk and floor. Alba had to think quickly and try to stay calm as Paul released another tremendous heave and another flood of vomit poured from his mouth. 

The other three kids from that desk had gotten away from the impending sludge now covering their desk top and jotters; she sent one of them to find the janitor, the second to get the office lady, and the third to the staff room to find her mentor. She’d crossed to Paul’s side, but she couldn’t really do anything to help him, only shield him from the view of the other kids – some of whom were being quite vocal about their disgust. Alba couldn’t quite believe how much sick was coming out of such a small person! She was relieved as Ms Marten, her mentor, appeared in the doorway.

“Everyone, I want you to leave your work and go with Ms Marten to the resources room.” She instructed, catching her mentor’s eye, pleased when she nodded in agreement. Alba knew that even when Paul stopped vomiting this wasn’t going to be a two minute clean up job. 

She wasn’t concerned about staying near the germ-ridden Paul – the good thing about having a brother twelve year her junior was that she’d been exposed to so many germs, every bug that he’d picked up while at nursery and infant school, that her immune system now was  _superb_. 

Alba relaxed as Paul was escorted to the office, a bowl held under his chin, for his mum to collect him – and she apologised as she left the janitor to clean up the mess. She took a few minutes in the corridor outside the resources room to recompose herself – that had come out of left field and she never wanted to deal with that ever again. Her class were working on a maths challenge that Ms Marten had set them as she joined them in the resources room. 

“Thanks for taking them,” Alba said quietly as she joined her mentor at the front of the class. 

“It’s no problem…” She replied, then she smiled at Alba. “You handled that  _really_  well.” 

“I panicked a bit,” Alba admitted, her heart was still beating quickly in her chest.

  
“It didn’t look like that from what I saw,” she disagreed, “did you have any warning at all? Did he say anything?”

“No…” Alba shook her head. “I just looked up and he was throwing up everywhere.”

“You’ve got a stronger stomach than I have.” She wrinkled her nose. “The first time I was in that situation I nearly puked too.”

“I just want to get through today now…” Alba said, “I guess not much else can go wrong.” She chuckled slightly, but that wasn’t quite right.

After the janitor returned to say he’d finished cleaning the classroom, she’d taken the class back, but the lingering smell of disinfectant and vomit was difficult to ignore. Then the office lady came to tell her that Paul’s little brother had been off nursery sick yesterday and that they thought it was a bug. That didn’t bode well for Alba because any of the other kids in the class could pick it up. And sure enough, right after lunch, one of the girls from the same table as Paul came to her to complain she had a sore tummy. Not wanting to risk another puking scenario she sent her to the office to go home; but that meant almost certainly this was some kind of virus. 

By the time the school bell rung at the end of the day Alba couldn’t wait to go home. Although her mentor said she’d handled this morning’s situation very well, the kids had been difficult for the rest of the day. She stayed long enough to pack up their work into her bag, then give the desk and floor another thorough scrub, before heading home. 

She’d only been home long enough to get food out to prepare for dinner, and pour herself a large glass of red wine, when there was a knock on the door. She opened the door to see her boyfriend, she flung her arms around his neck and kissed him; surprised at first Leyton relaxed into her kiss, wrapping his arms around her waist. 

“You okay?” He asked, resting his forehead tenderly against hers when she broke away. 

“I’ve just had an absolutely dreadful day…” she sighed, turning away and leading him into the kitchen. 

“That bad, huh?” He pointed at the glass of wine she’d poured out as he sat down at her table.

“Oh yes,” Alba nodded, picking up her knife again to chop some vegetables to add to the mince browning on the stove. 

“What happened?” He asked. Alba opened her mouth to tell him, then suddenly remembered his extreme phobia of vomiting, so she shrugged her shoulders.

“Just kids being kids – not listening, talking over me, acting out, you know?” She tossed the vegetables into the pan and stirred, then tried to change the subject. “How was your day? Do you want a drink?”

“Coffee, if you’ve got any,” he said, and she flipped the switch on her kettle. “I’ve spent the afternoon in the library, reading up for this case study I’ve got to evaluate.” 

“Are you thinking it’s a side of law you might want to go into?” Alba asked, beginning to spoon a layer of the ragu into a dish. 

“I’m not quite sure… possibly.” Leyton had gotten up from where he was sitting, coming up behind Alba and wrapping his arms around her hips. “What are you making?” He asked, kissing her neck as he pressed his front against her back.

“Lasagne,” she replied, placing a layer of pasta into the dish as he kept kissing her neck. “I’ve got to put it into the oven once it’s made up.”

“How long does it need to cook for?” Leyton mumbled as Alba poured white sauce over the top, then gently disengaged his arms to place the dish into the oven. Then she turned to face him:

“Long enough.”

* * *

 

Alba could hear the oven beeping, but she didn’t want to move from the warmth and comfort of lying next to Leyton. 

“It’ll be burnt…” Leyton commented and Alba sighed.

“I know.” She kissed him again before getting up and tugging her clothes back on, but she certainly felt much more relaxed than she had before. “Come on then, food – then we can chill.”

She dished up two plates of the slightly overdone lasagne and they ate without complaint as they knew it was their own faults. Leyton told her all about the case he was evaluating and the different routes he could go down and she tried to suggest ideas, even though she knew what she said was pointless. When they finished, Alba left the plates in the sink to wash later, and they returned to her bedroom. 

Alba set up her laptop near the end of her bed and the two of them curled up, resuming the episode of Grimm that they were watching currently. She rested her head against his chest as they watched, through the soft fabric of his t-shirt Alba could hear his muffled heartbeat which was soothing to her. 

She couldn’t tell how long she’d been in that position – only that they were about twenty minutes into the episode – but she was pretty sure his heart rate had steadily increased. Wondering whether she was simply imagining this, she listened more carefully over the sound of the tv episode – he was breathing a little quicker than usual. She adjusted her position on the pretence of getting comfortable, but she actually wanted to see his face, and was surprised to see he was rather pale with a sheen of sweat on his forehead. 

“Are you alright Leyton?” She asked suddenly. 

“Uh…” Leyton frowned as he looked at her. “I don’t know…” He shook his head slightly, and Alba hit pause on the show so she could hear him.

“What’s wrong?” 

“I’m not sure…” He mumbled, confusion painting across his face. “I think my stomach feels queasy…” Alba’s heart dropped as Leyton admitted this. 

“You think?” She asked, sitting up properly so she could look at him.

“I can’t tell whether it really is, or if I’m just imagining it and the worry’s making me feel ill,” He said honestly; he had had panic attacks in the past about thinking he felt unwell, but normally they came on suddenly. “I honestly don’t know…”

“Tell me how you feel?” Alba requested; the knowledge that’d she’d been in contact with someone who had a stomach bug today niggling in the back of her mind. 

“My stomach feels a bit… bubbly?” He told her, “I don’t really know how to describe it.” Alba took hold of Leyton’s wrist, trying to take his pulse and realised he was trembling. 

“Are you feeling hot? Or cold?” His pulse was racing under her fingertips, but that could simply be from his fear. 

“A bit warm…” He answered vaguely, with her own heart pounding she gently touched his abdomen. Almost instantly a loud upset-sounding gurgle issued from Leyton’s stomach and his face stiffened, looking terrified. Now it had made it’s first vocal announcement his stomach didn’t seem to want to stop, another burbling whine becoming audible. 

Alba didn’t want to tell Leyton the truth – that his queasiness sounded genuine, and it was probably her fault. Her stomach felt fine, so it couldn’t be the food, but was it possible that she could have passed on the bug she’d been exposed to without succumbing to it herself? 

“That doesn’t sound good, does it?” Leyton’s voice had dropped to a whisper; the panic obvious on his face, Alba took a deep breath. 

“It doesn’t Ley,” she couldn’t meet his eyes, guilt cloying at her throat, trying to close it up. “I think you actually are feeling nauseous…”

“Oh god,” Leyton put his hand up to his mouth, his eyes widening. “What do I do Alba? I don’t wanna – I  _can’t_  be sick!” He was shaking his head slightly, his breathing speeding up rapidly. 

“Leyton – listen to me,” Alba tried to sound calm even though she could almost taste the fear that he was feeling. “You need to take slow breaths, panicking will just make you feel worse.” Leyton closed his eyes and took a deep breath, trying to use one of the calming breathing techniques he’d taught himself. 

“I don’t like this…” He whispered.

“I know, but I’m not sure you’re gonna get through this without being sick…” She said honestly, Leyton flinched even at the suggestion of this. “I’m going to stay with you all the time so you’ll be alright, I promise.”

Leyton’s stomach gurgled again, his hand went to his belly and he moaned aloud. Alba was almost certain now that this must be the same bug that Paul had been suffering with this morning, and she felt terrible. Leyton’s face had drained of all colour and he appeared to be swallowing very rapidly. 

“I think we should go to the bathroom, don’t you?” Alba suggested gently, but Leyton was shaking his head again. 

“No, I don’t wanna,” he refused, but the thickness of his voice told Alba she’d been right to suggest this. 

“Okay, you’ve got two options,” she started, “we can either go to the toilet just in case, or I get a bin for you to have on your lap?”

When she looked at him she could see the tears in his eyes, and she wanted to apologise for afflicting this on him but she didn’t have the chance.

“Toilet –  _now!_ ” The urgency in Leyton’s voice made Alba jump, she pulled him off the bed and he clamped his hand over his mouth. She was leading him quickly to the toilet, but as they were at her door she heard a gurgling sound from Leyton’s throat and he halted, obviously forcing a wave of sickness back down his throat. 

“You’re okay Leyton,” Alba said reassuringly, pushing him into movement again. “I’m here – you’re alright.”

She steered him into the bathroom and forced him onto his knees in front of the toilet; he was whimpering quietly and his breathing speeding up again. He jerked and Alba saw his cheeks bulge, hearing liquid rushing into his mouth, but Leyton was refusing to let it out – his eyes were closed and he swallowed until his mouth was empty again. This was only going to make things worse when he finally couldn’t hold it back. 

“Leyton, look at me,” She tapped on his shoulder; he opened his eyes, tears spilling from them as he did so and Alba felt like her heart was being ripped out of her chest.  “Stop holding it in.” He shook his head, and she saw his chest heave at the beginning of a retch. “It’s gonna be unpleasant, but let it out and it’ll be done – you’ll feel better.” She put her hand on his back, feeling his muscles fluttering, and rubbed circles again. 

Leyton seemed to try and fight against the retch gripping him, but it became obvious that he wasn’t going to be able to fight this one. With a gurgling sound he’d opened his mouth and a stream of sick spurted out of his mouth.

“Well done,” Alba encouraged him as he took another breath and another wave of vomit came bubbling up out of him. “That’s it, you’re nearly done.” 

Under the sound of his retching Alba could hear him sobbing and she knew he was living his worst fear. He panted as he tried to regain his composure, but a burp brought up a mouthful of puke that splashed on the toilet seat, and he sobbed harder.

“It’s okay, it’s alright.” Alba assured; by the sounds of it Leyton’s stomach was nearly empty, his retching becoming drier and drier, then beginning to taper off.

It was a few minutes before the gagging stopped completely and Leyton sat back on his heels. Alba took some toilet paper and wiped the sick from the rim of the toilet seat, then flushed it to remove the sight of Leyton’s stomach contents.

“I feel awful…” he mumbled eventually.

“I know sweetie,” Alba wrapped her arm around his shoulder and stroked his forehead. “I’m so sorry you had to experience that.”

“I  _never_  wanna do that again…” He shook his head fiercely. 

“I know,” she repeated, “I’m sorry.” She knew he wouldn’t understand why she was apologising but she was hoping it would assuage her guilt. “Can I help you to bed now?” He nodded briefly. 

Leyton was weak on his feet and shaking as he guided him to her bed, tucking him in and sitting on the bed next to him to stroke the side of his face.

“My stomach still hurts,” he mumbled, wriggling under the covers.

“It might for a little while longer,” she replied, “you just tell me if you start feeling sick again.”

“Yeah.” He nodded minutely, but already seemed to be falling asleep. 

 


End file.
